A Love Conflict
by The Vehement Pen
Summary: The book thief can't believe Rudy would be this infuriating. Rudy can't understand why she's so mad at him...A conflict ensues...
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hey, guys! This is my first TBT fanfiction, and I know it's not the best, but I'm hoping to improve in the upcoming chapters. I don't know how quickly I'll update, but I'll try to not keep you guys waiting! Also, sorry for not italicizing/holding certain parts; I'm on my iPad, so I can't.

Hope you enjoy!

A cloudy sky overlooked the little German town. The period between the end of fall and the beginning of winter had caused this dreary, almost-but-not-quite stormy day.

A book thief was walking as fast as she could back to her house. No, not because it was a cold day. She was used to cold days.

It was that stupid saukerl.

"Liesel, come back!" shouted the boy. "Are you listening to me? I said, come back! We need to finish talking!"

She gritted her teeth and kept going. There was no way in hell she was going back to talk to that stupid boy. In fact - in that moment - she never wanted to see him again.

She walked faster.

Realizing she wouldn't listen to him, Rudy ran up to her and spun her around to face him. He loosened his grip on her and softened his features when he saw her red eyes.

"G-get off of me, saukerl," said Liesel. "My mama wants me home." This was not true. Her mother wasn't expecting her for another hour.

"Liesel, please just listen to me-" he started.

Suddenly, the girl pulled herself out of his grip.

"Do you not understand? We have nothing to say to each other! You can go now and leave me alone!" She could feel her eyes well up with tears. Though she didn't want to admit it, what he said had hurt. It had hurt when he told her about his new relationship with that girl from school, Stefanie. Especially considering that Stefanie had always been cruel to Liesel.

"I-I don't know why you're so upset," said Rudy. "We're happy together; shouldn't you be happy for us, too?" Something in his voice said that he hoped beyond hope that his best friend could support his relationship. It would mean the world to him.

"No. That girl has never been anything but rude to me." She couldn't even look him in the eyes.

"She's changed, Liesel! She wasn't very nice in the past, ja, but people change! She's actually very nice now, if you give her the chance."

He had a point. Stefanie hadn't exactly been rude to Liesel this school year; actually, she was kind of nice.

"Besides, aren't you glad I stopped chasing after you?" said Rudy.

It was true. The boy with hair the color of lemons had stopped his endless pursuit of Liesel. If she would never like him in that way, then he should move on. Move on to someone else, like Stefanie.

It was the best thing to do.

"I guess," Liesel mumbled. Still looking at him, she and Rudy turned and started walking home together, Rudy feeling like he accomplished something.

As they walked home, Rudy's words continued to ring through her head. "Besides, aren't you glad I stopped chasing after you?"

She finally glanced up to look at him. His beautiful blonde hair was gorgeous. She wanted desperately to run her hands through it. His blue eyes were unlike any of the other millions of blue eyes she had seen. They were softer (contrasting with his personality). And that smirk - sometimes, she wanted to wipe it straight off his face, but today...she would gladly look at it all day long.

She realized something that day. She was certainly not glad he stopped chasing her. She hated thinking it, but...Rudy Steiner had just broken her heart.

A/N: Well, there you go! Like I said, I know it's not the best, but I hope you enjoyed, and I hope this did a little something for your fangirl feels! This will be a multichapter story, (I wouldn't just end it there!) so don't worry, some better Liesel/Rudy moments to come!

Please rate and review; it means a lot!

Oh, and I have a question for you guys. What is Liesel and Rudy's ship name? I've heard both Riesel and Rusel. What do you guys use?


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hey, guys, I have here the next chapter of A Love Conflict for you guys! Let me know what you think, and thank you so, so much for the reviews on the last chapter! It means the world to me! Hope you enjoy this one!

Liesel barely got any sleep that night. Mama woke her up the next morning with a screech.

"SAUMENSCH GET UP! DID YOU FORGET ABOUT SCHOOL?" Mama practically shook Liesel out of bed.

"Sorry, Mama, I'm getting up," mumbled Liesel. Here comes another day of school, she thought.

Liesel couldn't concentrate one bit throughout class. And it was all the fault of that stupid saukerl and his girlfriend.

All day, Rudy and Stefanie had been passing each other notes discreetly when the teacher wasn't looking. Every time Stefanie would read Rudy's note, she would glance at him and smile. The worst part was when Rudy would smile back in that stupid little smirky way of his.

No, Liesel thought, he only smirks at me like that.

Immediately, Liesel was repulsed by her thoughts. Rudy had a girlfriend now. He would be spending time with her now, obviously. Even so, Liesel couldn't keep her eyes off the couple the entire day.

There was a knock on the door of 33 Himmel Street. Liesel, who was busy reading from a new book Papa had gotten her called The Dead Man, opened the door. Standing there was none other than Rudy Steiner.

"Hey, saumensch," he said. On his face was his stupid smirk again.

Though Liesel didn't want to admit it, she was glad he didn't just smirk for Stefanie now.

"What do you want, saukerl?" Liesel was losing patience. She had just gotten to the good part of her book, and she wasn't too happy with Rudy right now because of the Stefanie situation. Also, she hadn't had a good night's sleep.

"You wanna come play soccer? We're organizing teams."

"Sure," she said. She might as well get rid of her anger by kicking a soccer ball. "Just let me get my jacket."

"Okay," said Rudy. "I'll go get Stefanie to come play, also."

Liesel, who was about to reach for her jacket, stopped in her tracks. Stefanie was coming? Suddenly, she didn't want to play anymore.

"Sorry, Rudy, I just remembered. I have...to help Mama with the cleaning."

"Oh. Okay." said Rudy with slight disappointment. "Tomorrow then, huh, saumensch?"

"Yeah, sure." Liesel desperately wanted Rudy to leave now. She wanted to be alone.

"Okay, bye, saumensch!" He turned around and ran off into the distance.

Though Liesel's back was turned, she knew his thumping feet were headed in the direction of Stefanie's house.

Before she knew it, Liesel was upstairs in her room. The tears came before she could stop them. Hours went by and the tears wouldn't stop.

That night, there was yet another knock on the Hubermanns' front door. Papa and Mama were fast asleep. Liesel, however, couldn't get to sleep for the second night in a row. When she heard the knock, she went downstairs and opened the door.

It wasn't Rudy, much to Liesel's surprise and dismay. Instead, standing in her doorway, was the saukerl's girlfriend, Stefanie.

"Um...yes?" said Liesel. What the hell was she doing at her house so late at night?

"Hi, Liesel." Stefanie was smiling. The book thief hated that smile. It was creeping her out.

"I only came over to talk to you about Rudy. Do you have a minute?" said Stefanie. Liesel, nodding, sat down with her on the front steps leading to her house.

"So what do you wanna talk about?" Liesel was genuinely curious. She and Stefanie had never actually had a real conversation before - mostly because the only times they talked was when Stefanie insulted her.

"Well, you're friends with Rudy, right? You know him well, don't you?"

Liesel nodded. She had no idea where this conversation was headed.

"Well...I think Rudy is going to kiss me soon. He almost did today, but we got interrupted, so I think he'll kiss me tomorrow. I'm nervous, though, because...Hey, you don't look so good." Stefanie was staring at Liesel while the latter sat there, fuming.

It's true that Liesel didn't look good. Her face was brick red and she could feel the tears fighting to get out.

Rudy. Kiss. Stefanie. Rudy. Kiss. Stefanie. Those three words were the only things she could hear. She felt like throwing up.

Stefanie got up abruptly. "Sorry, I should probably get going. You look...tired and should probably get some rest. Besides, I only came here to tell you that I'm nervous about kissing Rudy because I don't know what kind of a kisser he is." Liesel could barely hear Stefanie talking through the thoughts that were going through her own head.

"It doesn't matter, anyways, because you've never kissed Rudy, either. Obviously you haven't. Rudy only likes pretty girls." Stefanie laughed. A short, harsh sound that hit Liesel's ears with a bang. With that, her best friend's girlfriend ran away, back to her own house.

Liesel stood there for a few more moments, shocked. She should have known. She should have known. Stefanie was just as rude and nasty as she she had always been. Rudy was wrong. She hadn't changed.

Liesel tried to get some sleep that night after Stefanie left. She couldn't. There were a lot of old, jealous thoughts bouncing about in her head, but a new one emerged, too.

Maybe she was right, Liesel thought. What if I'm not good enough for Rudy after all?

A/N: Hope you guys liked it! As I was writing this chapter, I realized that I hate Stefanie even more than I thought I did. Let me know if you hate Stefanie as much as I do, too! Again, thank you guys so much for the reviews and feedback, and I hope you guys liked this chapter, too! Thanks, guys!


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey, guys! First off, let me just say how sorry I am for taking forever to update. I was on vacation for a week and just never got the chance to write another chapter. I hope you can forgive me, and I'll try to put up another chapter this week to make up for it! Anyways, I hope you like this one and thanks for being awesome!**

* * *

Liesel woke with a groan. Her mind, temporarily blank, could not remember why she felt like shit this Sunday morning or, more specifically, why life had suddenly turned into shit. All she knew was that she was not happy.

As she headed into the tiny little bathroom down the hall, it hit her. The events of last night came rushing back. She let out another groan. Yes, life was indeed shit.

She always knew Stefanie was rude. She knew she was guiltless. However, her words still stung, even more so in the morning, when her mind was clear enough to think about them.

She took a good look at herself in the dirty, slightly cracked mirror of the Hubermanns'. She had never given much thought to her appearance before, but now...now, she was concerned.

_I'm not that bad-looking, am I? _thought Liesel. _I look fine. I look just like the other girls. I'm not beautiful, but I'm not horribly ugly, either. I'm no better than Stefanie, right?_

She wasn't so sure anymore.

* * *

Sundays on Himmel Street consisted of church and soccer. After the usual morning rush of the attending the former, (and eating some lunch, however little it may be) teams were in the midst of being assembled. Of course, Liesel was the only girl planning on playing (as always) and, therefore, Stefanie wouldn't be there.

At this point, Liesel couldn't take it anymore. She wanted Rudy to know how horrible Stefanie was to her so badly that she didn't think anything through. Instead, she roughly grabbed Rudy by the arm and pulled him over to the side, where none of the other players would hear them.

"Why are you dating her?" Her eyes were ablaze with crazed anger. She could barely hold in her emotions.

"Excuse me?" Rudy said. "What do you mean?" He was feeling confused, no doubt, by Liesel's unexpected question.

"You heard me, _saukerl_, why are you dating that girl? It doesn't make any sense why someone as good-hearted as you would be with someone like her." She couldn't believe what she was saying, but now that she had started talking, she couldn't stop.

"What are you implying?" Rudy asked. He could sense a full-on argument approaching and his own temper boiling up. "She's my girlfriend, _saumensch_, and if you're trying to tell me-"

"That she's a conniving bitch? Because that's exactly what I'm trying to tell you." She wondered if she had gone too far, but Rudy just narrowed his eyes and asked her a question she didn't want to answer.

"What happened between you two? Did she say something to you?" Rudy knew what Stefanie was like in the past. She knew his girlfriend had never really liked Liesel, but he also knew that Stefanie had changed (or so he thought). However, Liesel was still his best friend of many years, and Stefanie was only his girlfriend of a couple days. Liesel came first and he knew it.

_How do I answer his question? _Liesel thought. _I can't tell him what she said. _The dreaded thought popped up again in Liesel's head. _What if he agrees with her? What if he thinks I'm just as hideous as she does?_

Deep down, Liesel knew she was being ridiculous. Even if Rudy thought she was ugly, he would never say it to her face. And, even deeper down, she knew he didn't think she was in the first place.

However, Liesel _wasn't_ digging deep down. She was just looking at the surface. And, on the surface, she was _sure _Rudy would laugh at her and call her ugly.

"Nothing, you stupid _saukerl_!" said Liesel a little too sharply. "She's just a bitch, and you know it!" She was so upset, it was like she was breathing fire.

Rudy took a sharp intake of breath. "You don't even have a good reason as to why you hate her."

"I don't need one! She is a backstabbing, cruel bitch!" Liesel knew he would never believe her if she didn't give him a proper reason _and_ that he would be upset for calling his girlfriend a bitch. But all that was still better than the alternative: Rudy confirming she wasn't good enough for him.

"You need to stop, Liesel. You're getting out of hand. I don't know why you're so upset right now, but it's not fair to take it out on me _or_ Stefanie, especially for no reason." And with that, Rudy turned around and walked back to the game.

Needless to say, Liesel wasn't in the mood to play anymore.

* * *

As long as she knew him, Liesel had always hated fighting with Rudy. She had never stayed mad at him for more than half a day, and she wasn't going to start now.

Rudy was at home, even though all their other classmates were outside, due to his youngest sister, Bettina. She had just recently fallen ill and, as she had always been a frail child, Rudy was helping his mother tend to her.

Liesel knocked on the Steiners' front door, going over her apology in her head. She knew she shouldn't have blown up at Rudy like that, and that any qualm she had with Stefanie, she should address with Stefanie and Stefanie alone.

Rudy opened the door, looking uncomfortable. "Liesel," he said.

Not wanting to waste any time, Liesel spat out her apology. "Rudy, I'm so sorry for today. I have no idea what got into me, and I know it wasn't right to talk about Stefanie like that in front of you, and I'm just…really sorry. Really."

Liesel twisted her fingers together unconsciously while Rudy just stood there, avoiding eye contact. _Why won't he say anything? What's gotten into him? _thought Liesel.

When Rudy's eyes finally flicked over to hers, if only for a few seconds, she was surprised to find them so upset. Was he really that hurt because of that stupid argument?

"Liesel," he began. "I know what you told everyone about me. You don't have to keep it from me anymore." Liesel had never seen him look more uncomfortable in her life.

"Wh-what are you talking about, _saukerl_?" Liesel was taken aback. She rarely gossiped about people, mostly because she had nothing juicy to say about them. And besides, Rudy was her best friend. She always kept her mouth shut when it came to him.

"I don't know what I did to make you hate me so much. So much that you talk about me behind my back." She could hear the hurt in his voice. And it was because of her. Because of something she was still incredibly confused on.

"Rudy, I don't understand. I never said anything bad about you to anyone." And it was the truth.

"You-you told…you told everyone how poor you think I really am."

"_What?!_"

"You told all our classmates that you think I'll always be too poor to provide for a family of my own."

Liesel actually took a step back. She was in shock. Who would ever come up with such lies? And then she knew. _Stefanie._

She narrowed her eyes and asked the question. "Who told you this?"

Rudy looked directly at her, glaring her down. "Six or seven kids in our grade. Does it matter?" _The more important thing, surely, is the fact that you would even say that!_ he thought.

Liesel pretended to think for a second. "Let me guess. Stefanie and her friends." She had come here to apologize to Rudy for insulting Stefanie, and now she was at it again.

"Actually, no. It was Ludwig Schmeikl, Olaf Spiegel, Dieter Link, and a few others. None of them Stefanie or her friends." Rudy was exhausted at this point. He was fed up with Liesel and just wanted to go back inside with his mama and siblings.

"Rudy, I never said that. To anyone. Nor have I ever thought it. You have to believe me. Please." She was pleading with him. She hated begging others for things, belief or otherwise.

It didn't matter, though. Rudy didn't believe her. He had been hurt too much by what she had supposedly said, and he believed Ludwig, Olaf, and the others over Liesel. It was six against one. It was natural to believe all of them over Liesel, right?

_No_, said a voice in Rudy's head. _Your best friend should come first. Her word should come before everybody else's. _

Rudy ignored that voice, though. He was just too tired and defeated to listen to it (he had enough on his plate, with Bettina being sick, his intense schoolwork, and constantly trying to make Stefanie happy – she was very hard to please.).

However, in the weeks to come, Rudy would deeply regret not listening to that voice. He would beat himself up over and over again, wondering why he didn't trust Liesel.

He would only realize this, though, when it was too late.

* * *

After Rudy closed the door and went inside, Liesel walked as quickly as she could down the street, not wanting to go home, but not wanting to stay outside, either. Her eyes were downcast and, therefore, did not see trouble approach her.

She realized something was going on when she heard female whispers and giggles in front of her. She quickly flicked her eyes up to see Stefanie the Beautiful and her gang of giggling girls doing, well, just that.

"Is that all you people do? Giggle like deranged psychopaths?" Liesel didn't care whose feelings she hurt. Maybe a little harsh, but Stefanie wasn't holding back, either.

"Wow. I didn't know ugly cows could talk." said Stefanie.

Without caring about consequences, Liesel pulled a Ludwig Schmeikl on Stefanie and jumped right on top of her, ready to pummel her into the ground. Liesel barely got to punch her before she was pulled off the ground by her little cronies.

"This animal just _attacked_ me!" screeched Stefanie for the whole world to hear.

Liesel, who couldn't handle much more, ran as fast as she could back home. She ran into her room and slammed the door shut, (Mama was, thankfully, taking a nap and didn't hear) sobbing into her pillow. The words _ugly_, _cow_, and _animal_ ran through her mind. She wanted nothing more than to cry the rest of her life away.

Of course, Liesel _did_ eventually stop crying. She wasn't going to cry her life away, don't worry. She got up to wash her face a little while later while different thoughts popped up.

_Why would Ludwig and all those boys make up lies about me? What are they gaining from it?_ She knew the answer, even if she didn't want to admit it.

Stefanie.

Liesel was clueless as to how, but she was absolutely certain that Rudy's little girlfriend was the one making those boys say those lies about her. The question was, why were they agreeing to do it?

The answer is simple: Stefanie is from a rich family (one of the richest in Molching). She had paid those boys to say lies about Liesel. And, let's be real, in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Nazi Germany, who would say 'no' to a little bit of extra money?

As of now, though, both Liesel and Rudy were oblivious to the fact that Stefanie was bribing people. But, like with all things, eventually, the truth will come out.

* * *

After washing up, Liesel headed back to her room to sit by her window and get some reading done. It was the only way she could think of to calm her nerves.

She glanced out the window and what she saw almost made her topple over.

A kiss. Sealed between a lemon-haired _saukerl_ and the bitchiest bitch of all bitches.

Liesel was wrong. Obviously, sitting by the window, was not calming to her nerves.

* * *

**I hope you guys liked this! Leave a review to let me know what you think! And again, I'm so very sorry for not updating sooner. **** I will try to get another chapter up this week to make up for it. Thanks for reading! **


End file.
